His talk emphasized a lack of political unity in a state under a form of martial law.

BySindhu Gnanasambandan

Photo: Sarah Blauser

Indian activist Erando Leichombam described the desperate state of
Northeast India under the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) in a
talk Monday evening.
AFSPA, instituted in 1958, allows security forces from the Indian
Army to search, arrest, and shoot anybody suspected of insurrection,
placing Manipur and its neighboring states under a form of martial law.
Leichombam, the founder of the Manipur International Center, estimated
that there is about one soldier for every seven civilians.
In highlighting the brutality against civilians, Leichombam spoke of his own run-in with the army.
“Once I was at gunpoint. I was driving my car peacefully and this cop
turns out of nowhere and points a gun at me, simply because he wanted
to bully me,” he said.

Leichombam said he worries that the people of Manipur have passively accepted their condition.
“When I go back to Manipur, what I see is that people are getting
used to this lifestyle of being humiliated constantly. They are getting
used to the idea of very nasty cops, kicking and ordering them around,
harassing them,” he said.

The situation is exacerbated by India’s rampant corruption, he said.
According to Leichombam, 90 percent of the state’s funding and revenue
comes from the Indian central government.

“The local people, the local politicians—everybody is dependent on
the money. That generates a lack of political accountability, and that
is why you don’t see the local politicians or the local leaders standing
up against this act,” he said.

Manipur has just two seats in a parliament of 552 members, making it
difficult for the state to wield significant political power.

For Leichombam, the issue boils down to a lack of unity among the Northeast Indian people.

“There is no political unity, there is no political consensus, so my
feeling is that people need to wake up and be united and build political
will around the repeal of this act,” he said in an interview with the
Maroon.

“Yes, insurgency does happen. Sometimes insurgency comes with a lot
of violence, which I totally repudiate. When there is some sort of
fearmongering in society, the way to find peace is not by imposing it,
but by really employing the core values of what our democracy is.”